Grubbs case reward fund hits $10,000

Monday

Feb 6, 2012 at 12:05 AMFeb 6, 2012 at 9:31 AM

A little more than $10,000 is waiting in a public reward fund for anyone who can provide information leading to the apprehension and conviction of whoever murdered 23-year-old David Michael Grubbs on the Central Ashland Bike Path on Nov. 19.

Sam Wheeler

A little more than $10,000 is waiting in a public reward fund for anyone who can provide information leading to the apprehension and conviction of whoever murdered 23-year-old David Michael Grubbs on the Central Ashland Bike Path on Nov. 19.

That amount is expected to go up by an additional $5,000 today, said Ashland Police Chief Terry Holderness, as an anonymous donor intends to make what would be the most substantial deposit so far.

The total is sits at $10,120, all raised since the Ashland City Council approved a plan to establish the fund on Jan. 17, said Holderness.

He said the city plans to print fliers this week to advertise the reward fund to the public and will continue printing fliers to update people if the reward continues to increase substantially.

If the crime is solved without a tip, or if the City Council terminates the fund in the future because it's not proving useful, people who donated $50 or more will receive a refund.

An additional reward fund through Crime Stoppers offers $2,000 for anyone with information that leads to solving the Grubbs murder.

Holderness said he hopes the addition of the city's reward will help solve the investigation, which has slowed during the past few weeks.

"We're working on a diminishing number of leads, and we haven't been able to identify a viable suspect," he said.

Holderness said the APD is the only department working full-time on the case now, but detectives with Oregon State Police, Jackson County Sheriff's Department and Medford Police Department are on call and are updated regularly on developments.

"Everyone is staying up to speed so that if anything comes in everyone is up to date and we can hit the ground running," said Holderness. "We're still taking info as it comes in, but it's slowed down."

He said the crime analysis team nearly has finished building a case of evidence against whoever committed the crime, which would be used by prosecutors to convict them.

"They're just firming things up now," he said.

The OSP Crime Laboratory and Southern Oregon High-Tech Crimes Laboratory still are returning evidence to the APD, said Holderness, as is Steven Symes, an Erie, Pa., forensic anthropologist APD brought in to help identify the weapon used in Grubbs' murder.

Holderness said detectives still are not sure exactly what type of long-bladed weapon was used in the attack, and if they do find out, it likely won't be revealed to the public.